U.S. Pat. No. 3,819,088 describes a linear storage magazine comprising at least one module including a plurality of vertical drawers disposed side-by-side and divided into vertical compartments each containing a stack of same-type boxes. Each drawer is movable in horizontal translation out from the module, thus bringing a given vertical compartment out from the module.
The two side walls of the drawer in each compartment have two facing openings in order to pass the box situated at the bottom of the stack; these openings communicate with a slot made in the bottom of the drawer parallel to the direction of a conveyor which is common to all of the compartments of the module and which carries an ejector.
A box is extracted by combining two orthogonal movements: the drawer moves out from the module and the ejector passes beneath the drawer and along the slot of the selected compartment.
Such a device gives entire satisfaction for storing and dispensing small items weighing only a few grams, e.g. pharmaceutical goods.
Implementing such drawers with a plurality of compartments is difficult when storing and dispensing boxes which are larger in size since the magazine represents a large financial cost and is not capable of dispensing at a high enough rate to meet certain requirements such as for selling pharmaceutical goods wholesale. The present invention seeks to provide a magazine which is capable of satisfying such requirements.